Abstract

Two studies investigated norms related to communal strength in the United States and
Egypt. Communal strength reflects the extent to which individuals feel responsible
for meeting the needs of relationship partners, varies between relationships, and
predicts caregiving. Participants indicated the communal strength marital partners
should feel towards their spouse, mother, and best friend. In the United States, women
reported wives should feel the most communal strength towards their husbands and mothers,
but husbands should feel more towards their wives than mothers or best friends. American
men reported both spouses should feel the highest communal strength towards their
spouses and mothers. In Egypt, men and women agreed that wives should have the highest
communal strength for their husbands and mothers, but husbands should have higher
communal strength for their mothers than their wives or best friends. These findings
reflect cultural variation in the perception of ideal communal strength following
marriage, and highlight the ways in which expectations related to caregiving may differ
between spouses.

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Expanding relationship research globally is critical to explore the impact of cultural
context on close relationships. By doing so, researchers may illuminate practical
issues related to pedagogy, therapy, and marital counseling, as well as critical theoretical
issues related to understanding the universality versus cultural specificity of interpersonal
relationship processes (Burleson, 2003). To date, social psychological research on non-Western family relationships is limited
(Mensch, Ibrahim, Lee, & Omaima, 2003; Sherif, 1999). This study examines links between culture and the perception of responsibility
in close relationships by comparing norms related to ideal communal strength among
young adults in the United States and young adults in Egypt. Specifically, we examined
the extent to which spouses are expected to care for one another relative to other
communal relationships including their relationship with their mother and a best friend.

Communal strength represents the degree to which individuals feel responsible for
meeting the needs of relationship partners and is likely to vary from one communal
relationship to another such that the needs of some relationship partners take priority
over the needs of other relationship partners (Mills, Clark, Ford, & Johnson, 2004). For example, although individuals may feel some degree of responsibility for caring
for members of both their immediate family (e.g. their spouse or child) and their
extended family (e.g. an aunt or cousin), the needs of an immediate family member
are likely to take precedence over the needs of an extended family member (Monin, Clark, & Lemay, 2008). This means that people are likely to utilize more of their resources including
time, money and effort in supporting some close relationship partners than others.
It also means that in cases in which meeting the needs of one partner conflict with
meeting the needs of the other, for instance, because a person cannot be in two places
at the same time, supporting one partner will take precedence over supporting the
other.

These differences may be conceptualized in terms of the communal strength an individual
feels for each relationship such that some relationships are characterized by greater
communal strength than others. Mills et al. (2004) suggest that differences in communal strength among relationship partners may be
thought of in terms of a hierarchy in which relationships with greater communal strength
are higher in the hierarchy than those with lower communal strength. Given that all
people have a limited amount of resources and time available to help others, differences
in communal strength are ideally (but not always) implicitly understood by both members
of relationships and they enable individuals to prioritize the relationships in which
to invest the most resources and allow them to negotiate multiple demands on their
time, energy, and other resources. In their extensive interviews of married couples,
Hochschild and Machung (2012) found that negotiating multiple demands related to caregiving, employment, and housework
is one of the primary sources of strain facing American couples today. Expectations
related to whose needs should take priority in the family and how well those needs
are being met affect personal perceptions of being cared for, family members’ sense
of self-worth and gratitude, as well as the potential for marital conflict and tension
in the family.

Although there is individual variability and differences in communal orientation (Clark & Finkel, 2005), norms related to communal strength are likely to be shared within a given culture.
In Mills et al. (2004), undergraduate students in the United States reported the highest communal strength
for a member of their immediate family in comparison to a distant relative. Lower
communal strength was reported for a best friend than for immediate family members
followed by the least communal strength for an acquaintance. As suggested by Mills et al. (2004), a cultural norm in the U.S. may be that, ideally, both members of romantic and marital
relationships should feel equal communal strength toward one another such that partners
feel equivalent, symmetrical, responsibilities to care for the other. When this norm
is not met, differences in communal strength between partners may signal relationship
difficulties, cause conflict, and ultimately lead to the dissolution of the relationship.

Norms related to dating and marriage are also less traditional and conservative in
the U.S. in comparison to Egypt. During adolescence, American youth are generally
expected to begin dating and to develop romantic relationships. Parents and educators
often discuss the importance of establishing healthy intimate relationships as well
as safe sex practices and appropriate sexual activity in these relationships. Young
adults are encouraged to form monogamous dating relationships and to become self-reliant
and independent from their family (Sanderson & Cantor, 1995).

After making a long term commitment in an intimate romantic relationship, most Americans
choose to cohabit with their romantic partner prior to marriage. Estimates are as
high as 70% of all couples cohabitating prior to marriage (Hsueh, Morrison, & Doss, 2009; Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009). Among young adults, cohabitation may be seen as an acceptable way to “try out”
a marriage and the couple’s compatibility before a legal commitment is made (Kline et al., 2004), and parents tend to have little influence on the choice of dating and marital partners
as well as the timing of marriage. Adult children generally are expected to live independently
when they are financially able to do so, and the American norm is for nuclear families
to live in separate households, often at great distances from one another (Conger, 1981).

In Egypt, men and women are more likely to adhere to traditional gender roles, and
men are given significantly greater authority, respect, and freedom of choice than
women (Sanders, 1986; Yount & Agree, 2004). Although the number of women completing secondary schooling and higher education
has increased, getting married and having children are seen as the overriding goals
for women (Amin & Al-Bassusi, 2004), and to a large extent, women’s education is valued because of its potential to
enable women to find a more desirable spouse and to become a better wife and mother
(Mensch, Ibrahim, Lee, & Omaima, 2003). Whereas men are expected to be the breadwinner for the family, women are expected
to withdraw from paid employment once they are married, at least to the extent that
this is economically feasible (Hattar-Pollara, Meleis, & Nagib, 2000). Women are expected to focus on meeting the needs of their spouse and family above
all else, and their limited sphere of influence and decision making rests largely
within the home (Amin & Al-Bassusi, 2004; Yount & Agree, 2004). Egyptian husbands may forbid their wife to work if her employment is believed to
interfere with her responsibilities towards the family (Yount & Agree, 2004).

Based on interviews of 190 married and employed Egyptian women, Hattar-Pollara et al. (2000) reported that women engaged in employment outside the home were expected to meet
the needs of both their spouse and their spouse’s extended families above all else.
47% of the women surveyed described how meeting the needs of their husband was their
primary source of marital satisfaction and that their own happiness depended on their
ability to do so. Similarly, El-Maghraby (2004) found that Egyptian wives’ marital adjustment was associated with their perceptions
of the quality of their care for their home and their children.

In contrast to “free-choice” marriage and dating practices in the U.S., the extended
family plays a significantly larger role in Egyptian families. Egyptian marriages
are formally negotiated and arranged between families, and dating prior to marriage
is forbidden based on the teachings of Islam (Sherif, 1999). Following betrothal, an engaged couple may spend chaperoned time together, and
members of both families will begin to visit one another as well. Until recently,
young couples were expected to live with their husband’s extended family following
marriage. Today, many married couples continue to do so because of economic constraints
(Fadel-Girgis, 1983; Sherif, 1999), or when their extended family can afford to build a house consisting of separate
apartments as a way to keep the extended family living together following children’s
marriages (Fadel-Girgis, 1983).

This current study enabled us to see how these cultural differences in gender roles
and family interdependence may be related to different norms associated with ideal
communal strength within different communal relationships following marriage. Specifically
we chose to look at expectations for communal strength towards the spouse, the mother,
and a best friend. We chose to look at maternal relationships instead of paternal
relationships given evidence that people tend to feel a greater obligation and duty
to care for females relative to males (Monin et al., 2008), and because mothers most likely have the unique status of being the participant’s
primary caregiver since birth. We chose to include the best friend relationship as
a comparison condition. The best friend condition enabled us to compare a communal
relationship that tends to be lower in communal strength than family relationships
(Mills et al., 2004). We did not include questions about other types of relationships in order to reduce
the possibility of demand characteristics and repetition of the same questions.

Given greater gender role egalitarianism, the emphasis on the nuclear family, and
less family interdependence in the U.S. (Conger, 1981; Gere & Helwig, 2012), we predicted that American participants would report higher ideal communal strength
for spousal relationships than other relationships, and that the expectations for
men and women would be relatively similar. In contrast, given greater emphasis on
the extended family, collectivism (Barbopoulos, Fisharah, Clark, & El-Khatib, 2002), and the responsibility for children to care for elderly parents in Egypt (Fadel-Girgis, 1983; Yount & Agree, 2004), we predicted that Egyptian participants would report higher ideal communal strength
for maternal relationships following marriage, and that women would be expected to
provide greater caregiving within the family based on more traditional gender roles.

Participants
—
In the United States, 54 unmarried, undergraduate students (34 women, 20 men) completed
the survey. The mean age of the American participants was 19.46 years, SD = 1.15. In Egypt, 40 unmarried, undergraduate students completed the survey (20 women,
20 men). The mean age of the Egyptian participants was 19.33 years, SD = 1.14. In both countries, participants were recruited from introductory courses
or public areas on campus and asked to participate in a study on interpersonal relationships.
All participants were volunteers and were not compensated for their participation.

Materials
—
Each survey consisted of three self-report measures of ideal communal strength for
the relationship to the spouse, mother, and a best friend. To measure perceived ideal
communal strength, we adapted five of the ten questions on the measure of communal
strength previously developed by Mills et al. (2004) to measure the communal strength of an existing relationship. We selected a subset
of the original ten questions to reduce the possibility of participant fatigue or
disinterest given the need to repeat the same questions for three different relationship
types.

The five questions were modified to ask about the ideals associated with communal
strength in each relationship type following marriage. Specifically, participants
were asked the extent to which someone: 1) should feel happy about doing something
to help this person, 2) should make meeting the needs of this person a priority, 3)
should be willing to give to benefit the other, 4) should give a large benefit to
this person, and 5) should be willing to incur a large cost to meet a need of the
other person. All questions were answered by circling a number on a ten point scale
ranging from 0 (not at all) to 10 (extremely). Participants were asked to answer these same five questions for the relationship
with the spouse, the mother, and a best friend following marriage.

Two versions of the survey were used depending on the sex of the participants. For
the questions related to spouses, men were asked questions about how a husband should
respond to his wife, and females were asked questions about how a wife should respond
to her husband. This was done to avoid the use of he/she and to ensure that each participant
was responding to questions about the appropriate communal strength for someone of
his or her own sex.

Using the process of back translation, all surveys were translated from English to
Arabic by one translator and then from Arabic to English by another translator to
ensure that the translation to Arabic was as close as possible in meaning to the English
version. To minimize the potential for errors in translation and data entry all questions
were kept in the same order for all participants in both countries. Both the English
and Arabic versions of the survey are available upon request from the authors.

Procedure
—
In the United States, participants were recruited from a psychology course or from
public areas on campus. In Egypt, participants were recruited from two psychology
classes. Prior to being given the survey, the researcher informed the participants
that their participation was voluntary, and that the survey questions were about their
perceptions of interpersonal relationships with significant persons such as husbands
and wives, mothers, and best friends. Participants were also told that they could
freely ask any questions related to the survey at any time.

To calculate our dependent measure of perceived ideal communal strength for each relationship
type (spouse, mother, best friend), we calculated the mean score on the five questions
designed to measure ideal communal strength in each relationship. In the United States,
the Cronbach alpha coefficients for the five items measuring communal strength were
.85 for spouses, .92 for mothers, and .90 for best friends. In Egypt, the Cronbach
alpha coefficients for the same measure of communal strength were .82 for marriage,
.54 for mothers, and .89 for best friends. Given the relatively low Cronbach alpha
coefficient for mothers, we examined the overall pattern of correlations between the
five questions asking about mothers. Only two correlations reached statistical significance;
making the mother’s needs a priority correlated with willingness to benefit the mother,
r(40) = .41, p = .008 and giving a large benefit to the mother, r(39) = .42, p = .008. Future research is needed to determine whether this would be replicated in
a larger sample of Egyptian participants and to enable researchers to do a factor
analysis.

All statistical analyses were conducted within country to see if different patterns
of expectations would emerge between the U.S. and Egypt. We did not do direct comparisons
on measures between countries or treat country as a between subject variable due to
potential differences in scale interpretation, response bias, or subtle differences
in survey translation.

Within each country, a mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance was conducted
to examine the effect of relationship type (spouse, mother, best friend) and participant
sex on perceived ideal communal strength for each relationship type. The mean level
of communal strength for each relationship type for males and females in each country
is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Ideal Communal Strength for the Same Sex Spouse Across Relationship Types Following
Marriage

Although the mean level of ideal communal strength for each relationship type in the
U.S. did not show a significant difference between mean level of ideal communal strength
for spouses versus mothers, the findings for Egyptian men and the overall ranking
of communal strength for mothers across male and female participants was consistent
with our hypothesis that maternal relationships would take priority over marital relationships
in Egypt.

Given the interesting sex differences between the Egyptian participants identified
in Study 1, we decided to conduct a second study to see if the expectations participants
had for their own sex would match the expectations participants held for the opposite
sex. In other words, we wanted to see if women’s expectations for women following
marriage would match men’s expectations for women following marriage, and similarly,
whether men’s expectations for men would match women’s expectations for men following
marriage. If not, these areas of disagreement would highlight the potential for conflict
when one spouse’s expectations differ from the other.

To determine whether or not we would see similar expectations for husbands versus
wives regardless of participant sex, we replicated the materials and procedure of
Study 1, but reversed the surveys so that women answered questions about how men should
respond following marriage, and men answered questions about how women should respond
following marriage. Study 2 was conducted during a different academic semester using
the same procedure, and included all new participants who had not participated in
Study 1.

Participants
—
In the United States, 45 unmarried undergraduate students (27 women, 18 men) completed
the survey. The mean age of the American participants was 18.56 years, SD = 0.99.

In Egypt, 40 undergraduate students completed the survey (20 women, 20 men). The mean
age of the Egyptian participants was 19.85 years, SD = 1.23.

Procedure
—
We replicated the procedure of Study 1 and used the same surveys. The only change
was that women were asked to answer the questions regarding communal strength following
marriage for a husband, and men were asked to answer questions regarding communal
strength following marriage for a wife.

To calculate our dependent measure of perceived ideal communal strength for each relationship
type (spouse, mother, best friend), we calculated the mean score on the five questions
designed to measure ideal communal strength in each relationship. In the United States,
the Cronbach alpha coefficients for the five items measuring communal strength were
.84 for spouses, .92 for mothers, and .91 for best friends. In Egypt, the Cronbach
alpha coefficients for the same communal strength measures were .71 for marriage,
.88 for mothers, and .91 for best friends. Based on the same rationale given in Study
1, all statistical analyses were conducted within country to see if different patterns
of expectations would emerge between the U.S. and Egypt. We did not do direct comparisons
of measures between countries or treat country as a between subject variable.

Within each country, a mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance was conducted
to examine the effect of relationship type (spouse, mother, best friend) and participant
sex on perceived ideal communal strength for each relationship. The mean level of
communal strength for each relationship type for males and females in each country
is presented in Table 2.

Table 2

Ideal Communal Strength for the Opposite Sex Spouse Across Relationship Types Following
Marriage

In the United States, the interaction between relationship type and participant sex
was significant, Wilks’ Lambda = .77, F(2, 42) = 6.12, p = .005, partial eta squared = .23, such that women expected men to have more communal
strength to their wives than to their mothers, t(26) = 6.36, p = .000, whereas men did not expect women to have more communal strength to their
husbands than to their mothers, t(17) = -.29, p = .76. Both expected lower communal strength towards best friends. Overall, across
male and female participants, 57.8% of American participants ranked spouses as the
top priority (as indicated by the highest mean communal strength) versus only 22.2%
who ranked mothers as the top priority.

In Egypt, the interaction between relationship type and participant sex was not statistically
significant, however there was a significant main effect for relationship type, Wilks’
Lambda = .67, F(2, 36) = 8.90, p = .001, partial eta squared = .33, such that both women and men expected opposite
sex spouses to have less communal strength for their spouse following marriage than
for their mothers. Across both men and women, perceived ideal communal strength toward
the mother, M = 7.67, SD = 1.60, was significantly higher than toward the spouse, M = 6.76, SD = 1.46, t(38) = -3.40, p = .002. Interestingly, although men expected wives to have more communal strength
toward their spouse than toward their best friends, t(18) = 3.35, p = .004, women did not expect husbands to have more communal strength towards their
spouses than towards their best friends, t(19) = -.76, p = .46. Overall, across male and female participants, only 20% of Egyptian participants
ranked spouses as the top priority (as indicated by the highest mean communal strength)
versus 50% who ranked mothers as the top priority.

Based on the mean level of ideal communal strength and rankings for each relationship
type, evidence in both the U.S. and Egypt was consistent with our hypothesis that
marital relationships would take precedence over maternal relationships in the U.S.,
and maternal relationships would take precedence over marital relationships in Egypt.
In the U.S., American women reported that husbands should have higher communal strength
for their wife than for their mother, however, all other comparisons weighted these
two relationship types equally. In Egypt, both women and men reported that both husbands
and wives should have higher communal strength for their mother than for their spouse.

Our overall findings are consistent with the prediction that different countries may
have different cultural norms related to communal strength in family relationships,
and this is the first study to demonstrate such differences. Taken together, these
two studies highlight the ways in which American and Egyptian cultures differ in terms
of the normative expectations related to who should take priority in family relationships
following marriage, and we believe these patterns likely reflect different cultural
values related to gender, family interdependence, and the role of the extended family.
Interestingly, these findings also highlight different perspectives of men and women,
and therefore potential areas of interpersonal conflict due to differing expectations
between marital partners both within and across cultures.

In the U.S., both men and women agreed that for wives, the importance of meeting the
needs of her husband and mother should be relatively equal and take priority over
meeting the needs of a best friend. Interestingly however, whereas men also felt that
husbands should prioritize both their wife and their mother relatively equally, women
did not share this belief. In contrast, American women indicated that husbands should
have significantly more concern and interest in meeting the needs of his wife than
his mother. The expectation that men should prioritize their marriage over their mother,
at least from women’s perspective, is consistent with our prediction that the nuclear
family would take precedence following marriage in the United States. In terms of
the potential for marital conflict, differing expectations between spouses related
to the relative importance of the husband meeting the needs of his wife versus the
needs of his mother may be one area of potential friction.

In Egypt, both men and women agreed in their perceptions of ideal communal strength,
however there was no evidence that they expected communal strength to be equivalent
between spouses. In contrast, both men and women indicated that although women should
prioritize meeting the needs of both their husband and their mother, men should prioritize
their mother over their wife. Interestingly, Egyptian women also indicated that men
were not even expected to prioritize their wife over their best friend. The finding
that Egyptian women were not expected to prioritize mothers over spouses and that
American women were not expected to prioritize spouses over mothers but were expected
to care for both equally, may reflect a strong emphasis on caregiving across family
relationships for women in both countries.

Differing views of ideal communal strength following marriage have a number of interesting
implications for understanding interpersonal relationships and families in a cross-cultural
context. In terms of communal relationships across cultures, these findings highlight
an area of potential friction in relationships between American women, who based on
cultural norms are likely to perceive themselves to be the top priority of their husband,
versus Egyptian men, who based on different cultural norms are likely to perceive
their mother’s needs to take precedence over those of their wife.

Another interesting implication relates to the view that equality in communal strength
is the normative ideal for romantic and marital relationships (Mills et al., 2004). Whereas this may be the case within American and other Western cultures, this may
be less true in others. One possibility may be that rather than equality in communal
strength, agreement in expectations related to communal strength may be a more important
determinant of marital harmony. In Egypt, men and women did not indicate that husbands
and wives should have relatively equal communal strength toward one another; however
they both shared the view that women should have more communal strength to their husbands
than vice-versa. This difference may reflect more traditional gender roles and the
emphasis on caregiving and relationships for women in Egyptian culture.

Based on our limited sample, we do not wish to generalize these findings to entire
countries however, these findings do indicate that within an equivalent age group
of university students, different patterns of relationship expectations emerged in
each country. Hochschild and Machung (2012) found that normative expectations related to marital responsibilities and caregiving
are likely to differ based on education, social class, ethnicity, and family background
in the United States, and we would expect this same variability in Egypt as well.
Additionally, the relatively young ages of our participants limit the generalizability
of our findings to other age groups within each country however, young adulthood is
a particularly interesting and important stage of life in which to examine expectations
related to marriage and family (Gere & Helwig, 2012). Our participants’ responses reflect young adults’ relationship ideals prior to
marriage, at a point in which they likely are beginning to think about long term commitments
and life goals, and when their expectations have not yet been influenced by actual
experiences in a marriage.

Future cross-cultural research should investigate the link between actual communal
strength and marital satisfaction within marriages, as well as the potential for marital
distress when one spouse does not meet the other’s expectations. Another critical
relationship type to investigate in terms of relative communal strength is the parent-child
relationship and communal strength norms for mothers versus fathers. Additionally,
researchers need to examine the expectations related to whose needs should take priority
and by whom following the transition to parenthood within marriage as this is likely
to be a time in which personal resources related to caregiving and one spouse’s availability
to care for the other spouse are strained.

This study supports our belief and is consistent with other research (Gere & Helwig, 2012) indicating that Western and non-Western cultures may have different expectations
related to gender, communal strength, and caregiving among the extended family. We
also found evidence that expectations may differ between husbands and wives, and we
believe these differences may create a potential area of marital friction. Future
research is needed to identify those factors most likely to predict caregiving expectations
both within and between cultures, as well as the impact of mismatched beliefs.

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